Steam is down for many —here's what we know about the 'loading user data' issue

Steam is having a bad start to the week, according to thousands of users who are reporting that a "loading user data" issue is preventing them from logging in.

Reports about the problem have been on the rise on Downdetector since around 4.30am ET / 9.30am BST, and have risen particularly sharply in the last hour. There are also countless reports on social media and Reddit of people experiencing the same issue.

There's no been no official statement or update from Valve about the problem, but here's all the latest news on the gaming platform's apparent outage today...

The story so far

• Many Steam users are reporting being unable to log into their accounts
• Most are reporting being stuck on a "loading user data" page
• The reports started at around 4am ET / 9am BST, but there's still no official word from Valve on the issue

2026-10-26T13:54:23.923Z

We're at four hours and counting

Today's Steam issues started at around 4am ET / 9am BST but there's still no sign of a fix or any successful troubleshooting tips.

The Reddit thread above continues to grow with comments from across the globe, from Japan to Spain — and while some are suggesting fixes (like turning off Wi-Fi, opening Steam, then turning on Wi-Fi again) they don't seem to be working for very many users.

I've contacted Valve for an official response and will update you as soon as I hear anything.

2026-10-26T13:40:04.879Z

You're not alone

Those Steam reports on Downdetector are very much going in the wrong direction — with the spike now near-vertical in the US and UK.

Almost everyone is reporting the same problem — being stuck on a "loading user data" page when trying to log in. Many are reporting that this happened after they cleared their download cache, but it isn't clear if that's a universal theme.

There's still been no official word from Valve on social media or other channels, but I'm trying to get a response now and will report back as soon as I hear anything.

2026-10-26T13:26:38.577Z

This isn't an outage

The Steam dashboard is green across the board right now, so we don't appear to be looking at a network outage.

That means all of Steam's traditional advice — from restarting Stream, to clearing your download cache or changing your download region — isn't really applicable or working for most people.

Some have reported that restarting their PC without an internet connection, launching Steam in offline mode, then re-connecting to the internet has done the trick for them, but many are reporting that it hasn't solved their issues.

2026-10-26T13:12:28.763Z

The screen of pain

This is the screen that thousands of Steam users are reporting seeing right now — and it seems resistant to most of the commonly-known fixes.

Many users have reported closing their games and restarting their PCs, but without any joy. This also doesn't seem to be a maintenance outage — those typically takes place on Wednesdays at 00:00 UTC.

The Steam Dashboard continues to show no official issues, but hopefully we'll get some official guidance from Steam soon...

2026-10-26T13:05:14.690Z

Reports are on the rise

Today's Steam issue has been a bit of a slow burn rather than a sudden outage, but reports are now increasing sharply.

On Downdetector, they've now hit a peak of almost 500 in the US and about 450 in the UK. However, it does seem to be a global issue according to a Reddit thread, with users in Germany, the Netherlands and Russia all saying they can't log in.

Over on the Steam Dashboard, there's no report of an official problem — so this appears to be a software bug or issue rather than a service outage.